Table of Contents
Introduction
The increased advancement in technology over the years has changed the way man is carrying out his activities. Among the most affected areas of man’s activities is the learning process. Most of the students in the modern world do not go to the universities based on the love for the subject but to get the necessary qualification to get a job. In most cases, the students aim at doing enough to get enough to get the minimum qualification for specific job entries. The reading habits among students have been washed up by the increased use of the social media and the technological advancement. Through the advancement in technology, social media has has come forth as one of the first growing medias of communication. Arguably, social media permeates the current society since millions of people have been engrossed to level of unhealthy addition. Some of these apps like 2go, Facebook, twitter, and YouTube have been a source of information for more students around the globe. What most of these students do not understand is the negative effects these platforms have on their study habits. It is in light with this that this research will assess the effects of the use of social media in learning by students and how it can be managed.
The first effect that the utilization of the social media on student learning is that most of the students rely on these sites for getting information and shun away from other educative facilities such as the library and other educative workshops that are organized by different companies. This, in turn, leads to non-development of excellent research skills among the students (Charlotte, 410). Learning is about the ability of the learner to get creative and understand the content that is being taught. Overuse of these sites thus turns learners into copy and paste machines. Moreover, students who get access to the online library are often distracted by the social media platforms. Often, they tend to multitask through checking the social media sites while still studying. In the long run, this will reduce the concentration capacity of the students. Besides, the inability to concentrate is caused by the different platforms such as StumbleUpon, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Most of these sites do not carry educative information. What this means is that as students try to browse through the sites, they come across posts that are not educative and that they cannot avoid hence whatever educative information they had gathered if completely destructed.
The second effect that social media has on the ability of student to learn is their inability to interact with various people in the society more often. It must be understood that learning is a continuous process that needs the application of different skills that cannot be entirely acquired from the classroom settings (Chris, 903). Through interacting with the various people in the society, students can be able to develop different skills such as body signals and the nonverbal cues including inflection and tone. Additionally, the social media platforms cannot have an adequate replacement to face to face communication, therefore, making the students not to have a primary conclusion on a given subject (Cynthia, 54). Through the use of social media for learning purposes, students are less likely to adapt to the changes in the social setting which are some of the factors playing a significant role in ensuring an overall educative environment.
The use of the social media platforms also affects the usage of grammar among students in the higher education setting as well as other educative arenas. The speed of which the news or any other information is published on social media platforms is usually very high. However, these mediums do not take into account the rules of grammar or the spelling of the different words used to pass the information. This reduces the ability of the students to effectively write different words without relying on the computer spelling checker programs. Various researchers also note that the increase in the number of spelling mistakes seen in the social media is as a result of individuals typing at speed in both the social networking sites and chat rooms where there exist no general attitudes on the need for correct spelling (Chris, 907). Consequently, the social media has also brought an increase in the in linguistic variations among students and the young generation born in the computer age with improved access to materials in and out of schools.
Another effect of the social media on the learning of students is the degree at private information is availed online that seems to make most of the students forget on the need for information filtering. In the modern economy, most of the employees use the social media platform to investigate the different skills and behaviors that students would be reluctant to show (Cynthia, 57). In addition to their in ability to filter information, some of these sites require one to fill in their private data before joining them. As much as the security of this information is guaranteed, it is possible that the data could leak. This helps them understand the background of the person in the interview and how they can relate to the different social situations.
In concluding, from the historical perspective, social media was developed to help in the interaction and sharing of information among the various classes of people. Although the sites help in passing of vital information to groups that do not have access to other platforms such as newspapers, it has led to deteriorations of the quality of education acquired at the institution of higher learning. This is because most of these have been overused. It is, therefore, important for the different stakeholders in the education sector to ensure that the access of student to the social media sites is moderated through the exemplary methods. Through this, the students will be able to reduce the time they spend on the social sites. Additionally, it will provide them with ample time for face to face interaction such as attending social events and family leisure.
- Charlotte, R. History of Education and Social Media. Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. UK .2015
- Chris. E. Twitter for teaching: Can social media be used to enhance the process of learning? British educational research association, 2013
- Cynthia D. Wilson. Higher Education Meets Social Media. Taylor and Francis ltd. 2013